NASSAU- A former prison guard was on Wednesday sentenced to eight weeks in prison for trying to smuggle a cellphone to an inmate.
Romell Rolle, 26, pleaded guilty to bringing a prohibited item into the prison, an offense that carries a maximum of three months’ imprisonment.
He will spend an additional four weeks in prison, if he doesn’t pay a $600 fine.
Rolle had worked as a corrections officer for five years before his arrest on April 27.
The court heard that Rolle accepted a $250 bribe to deliver the Samsung Galaxy A01 phone to a medium security inmate.
Rolle stashed the cellphone inside a food container.
However, Rolle’s supervisor found the phone when he reported for duty.
Rolle claimed that money problems drove him to break the law.
But Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt said that this was not an excuse to “embark on a criminal enterprise.”
The magistrate hinted that she thought Rolle deserved a harsher punishment when she suggested that the penalty for the crime needed review.
